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Suggest Treatment For Chronic Cough In A Child
Question: My 8 yr has a cough. Started in February. It sounds like a seal barking, gets a lot worse at night or if he runs around, but he coughs all day too. He has not had any cold or flu, just this nasty cough with occasional mild temperatures. He has had numerous sore stomach and diareah intermittently and some headaches. Since April, gp has prescribed antibiotics, then 3 day course steroid and inhalers. None helped. 4wks ago another course of 5days steroid, no difference in fact cough seems to be getting more aggressive and coughing fits louder and longer. Now on a two week course antibiotics, half way through that course, no difference. Son is happy enough, but not bright or energetic. He has had a lot of time off school had to stop his sports and at night is miserable. blood test which was normal, and chest X-Ray showed nothing either, yet nearly 5months later his cough seems to be getting worse not better. Any ideas on what might be going on, home treatments we can try to support him? He is fully vaccinated including the flu vaccination this year. He is vaccinated against whooping cough, and does not have a "whoop" in the cough, a test did not show whooping cough but was told it is hard to test for months later. Look forward to some advice, we have been back to the doctor but he doesn't seem to be getting better.
Brief Answer:
This sounds like allergy related!
Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.
I am so sorry to hear about this chronic cough that has greatly affected the life of your son. I hope we get to find the exact cause of this cough and address it so as to permit your son get back to doing things that he likes.
From a glance, these symptoms are suggestive of sports induced airway hyper-reactivity. However, the fact that a course of steroids and inhalers has failed to help makes me to question what else could be going on. I would suggest that I will like this treatment of steroids and inhalers tried for longer durations before completely writing them off seen the suggestive nature of these symptoms.
Other common causes of chronic cough are gastric reflux disease, postnasal drip, no identifiable cause, etc. It would be worthwhile to get him evaluated for these as possible causes and ruled out or confirmed. In some other persons, we never get to find a precise cause for these symptoms. Antibiotics would not really help at this time as this cough seems not to be infectious. Am not surprised there are no major changes half way through the treatment.
In all, I will like this child to be fully evaluated by a pediatrician for these various conditions that I have raised. If no solutions are forthcoming, I will like an ENT specialist and a pulmonologist to give it a specialist touch. I hope these would be able to identify the exact cause and address.
Should these efforts fail, though worrisome, it is also reassuring that there is nothing grossly abnormal going on with him. In tis case, I will advice that we seek to identify what turns it on, aggravates it and avoid and let him grow. He would most likely grow out of it. I have witnessed this with a few number of my patients.
I hope this helps. i wish your son well and feel free to ask for more information and clarifications if need be. Thank you so much for using our services.
This sounds like allergy related!
Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.
I am so sorry to hear about this chronic cough that has greatly affected the life of your son. I hope we get to find the exact cause of this cough and address it so as to permit your son get back to doing things that he likes.
From a glance, these symptoms are suggestive of sports induced airway hyper-reactivity. However, the fact that a course of steroids and inhalers has failed to help makes me to question what else could be going on. I would suggest that I will like this treatment of steroids and inhalers tried for longer durations before completely writing them off seen the suggestive nature of these symptoms.
Other common causes of chronic cough are gastric reflux disease, postnasal drip, no identifiable cause, etc. It would be worthwhile to get him evaluated for these as possible causes and ruled out or confirmed. In some other persons, we never get to find a precise cause for these symptoms. Antibiotics would not really help at this time as this cough seems not to be infectious. Am not surprised there are no major changes half way through the treatment.
In all, I will like this child to be fully evaluated by a pediatrician for these various conditions that I have raised. If no solutions are forthcoming, I will like an ENT specialist and a pulmonologist to give it a specialist touch. I hope these would be able to identify the exact cause and address.
Should these efforts fail, though worrisome, it is also reassuring that there is nothing grossly abnormal going on with him. In tis case, I will advice that we seek to identify what turns it on, aggravates it and avoid and let him grow. He would most likely grow out of it. I have witnessed this with a few number of my patients.
I hope this helps. i wish your son well and feel free to ask for more information and clarifications if need be. Thank you so much for using our services.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Hi, he had allergy testing done when he was 5. He had some sort of allergic reactions making him have hives which swelled fast. They ran extensive allergy testing at hospital and only came back with mild allergy to dust mites and cat dander. His mattress is fully enclosed with an allergy recommended mattress protector and we clean carpets often. Do you have any specific allergy advise if this might be related, so we can look for either more tests, or elimate in our house. We have had some success with an antihistimine at night to calm the cough and get him to sleep. Also he is still on rhe inhalors, been approx 2 months. The preventor inhaler we have stopped this week, the other is helpful short term in a big coughing fit. Also are there any things we shoukd be doing at home, or supplements that might assist? Thanks for your answer. We know a good private ENT who looked after our son as a toddler for grommets, along with tonsills and adnoids removal, so will book to see him, however it will likely be a 6 wk wait for an appointment.
Brief Answer:
Thanks for this follow up precision!
Detailed Answer:
I am impressed at how much efforts you have put into this to get a solution to this problem. Though the exact cause has not been identified, every disease and treatment plan that fails to resolve the problem at least tells us what it is not and narrows down the list of possible causes.
For allergies, there is nothing much I would recommend at this time. You are already doing so much and there us no reason to think it is not sufficient. I will not root for more extensive testing and investigations at this time either.
Give it a break. Watch this child grow up a little more and see what else comes up as symptoms. Continue with the various measures that have shown to be helpful. I am of the strong opinion that he would grow out of these symptoms. I will not be surprised if further testing shows something concerning that is totally benign and would not explain these symptoms.
See the ENT. Continue the measure you have in place already. Monitor this child grow and collect more information if new symptoms set in. Avoid further extensive and invasive testing.
Let e hear from you if this sounds like something you would want to consider.
Thanks for this follow up precision!
Detailed Answer:
I am impressed at how much efforts you have put into this to get a solution to this problem. Though the exact cause has not been identified, every disease and treatment plan that fails to resolve the problem at least tells us what it is not and narrows down the list of possible causes.
For allergies, there is nothing much I would recommend at this time. You are already doing so much and there us no reason to think it is not sufficient. I will not root for more extensive testing and investigations at this time either.
Give it a break. Watch this child grow up a little more and see what else comes up as symptoms. Continue with the various measures that have shown to be helpful. I am of the strong opinion that he would grow out of these symptoms. I will not be surprised if further testing shows something concerning that is totally benign and would not explain these symptoms.
See the ENT. Continue the measure you have in place already. Monitor this child grow and collect more information if new symptoms set in. Avoid further extensive and invasive testing.
Let e hear from you if this sounds like something you would want to consider.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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